Daniel:
I think the Astros have already retired too many numbers. If you look up the numbers that have been retired by all teams, the total is less than the number of players in the Hall of Fame. I think you should be a Hall of Fame player who has played at least ten prime years with a team to have your number retired. Using this criteria, the only Astros players who should have their numbers retired are Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. You could stretch to Jose Cruz for his long service and five team MVP awards and perhaps stretch to me for length of service and because of my managing record. J.R. was as dominating as anyone ever for a few years. Mike Scott won a Cy Young award and had several other good seasons. Nolan Ryan had his best years with the Angels. Jimmy Wynn's totals in an Astros uniform fall short, and his totals with all teams are still considerably short of Hall of Fame credentials. Should the team retire Roger Clemens' number because he won a Cy Young award and an ERA title here? How about Joe Morgan? Joe Neikro won more games in an Astros uniform than anyone else, but his total is only 143. Should his number be retired? And how about Don Wilson? He may have won enough games to make the Hall of Fame if he hadn't died mid-career, but I don't think he would have. His number was retired because Jim Umbright's number was retired after a premature death.
I'm proud to have my number retired, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if it weren't. Sometimes it seems that teams retire numbers just to draw big crowds. If all teams did this, the older and more sucessful franchises like the Cardinals, Dodgers, A's and Yankees wouldn't have any single or double digit numbers left.
